In this wide-ranging conversation, I spoke with Michael Skiba, who participated in the very first cohort of Building a Second Brain in January 2017. He talks about how he’s continued using and developing his Second Brain over that time.


Our conversation includes:

  • How he uses his digital notes to maintain a side gig as a comedian, while working a day job, including how he created a pipeline and testing process for jokes
  • The colorful variety of specialized notebooks he created for storing different kinds of information
  • How he uses his notes to keep track of elevator pitches, bios, and other notes on his profile as a creator
  • Screenshare walkthrough of his Evernote setup
  • How he archives past projects so they are out of the way, but instantly available for later recall and review
  • How a Second Brain can be used to solve problems with its own creation and management (because it’s a general problem solving system, not a specialized one)
  • The implications of working on the frontier of knowledge, drawing on the work of Karl Popper and other philosophers, when it comes to building practical knowledge management systems

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